Do something cool this year

I’ve got big plans for the new year.
I am going to do something cool.
I haven’t decided what cool thing I am going to do yet, but rest assured, it will be cool. In years past, I have always told myself to do something specific like go to the gym, not go to the gym or try to talk in a pirate voice for an entire year — but I was only a young child for that last one....OK, I was 23.
Either way, they never worked out. Therefore, I am going broad this year. I am going to do something cool. At the end of the year, I will surely be able to pick out something and qualify it as cool. I may learn to do a backflip or get really good at wheelchair racing when I break my back trying to do a backflip.
That is the great thing about saying something broad. If one thing doesn’t work out, another thing is sure to present itself as a viable replacement.
I know what you are thinking. “Why am I still reading this? And, Luke, you already do so many cool things all the time. Isn’t this sort of a cop out?”
Well, I appreciate the support, but there is always more to be done. There are mountains to hike and arguments to have with my wife about why I don’t hike up mountains.
While I hope to do something cool that people can see and point at saying, “Wow, that is so cool.” I also hope I can do something cool for people behind the scenes.
I recently discovered a secret about a member of my parents church. He is well-known in the church for blowing his nose loudly during the service and always wearing his suspenders. However, he does a lot more than that during the week.
My parents church has a large number of African refugees who have escaped almost sure death to come to America. When they get here, they often don’t have a place to live, food to eat or a job to earn money.
Enter loud-nose-blower-wearing-suspenders guy. This retired man finds jobs and homes for these families and helps them get settled in a new place. He doesn’t tell a lot of people, unless he is asking for them to donate something to one of these families.
Most people will only ever know the man because his nose-blowing has made them chuckle during the church service. But there is a group of people out there who will always know him as the man who changed their lives and helped them in a foreign land after they knew nothing but fear and danger.
That is a cool guy.
I hope I can do something for someone this year that makes their life a little better. I don’t need any credit or kudos — I just need to have the feeling that I helped someone’s life.
That will be pretty cool.

Luke Harris is the editor of the Burleson Star. He hiked up a mountain once. It was pretty cool, but not cool enough to warrant a near heart attack. He can be reached at www.burlesonstar.net.